Hasidic Halakhah: reappraising the interface of spirit and law

This paper offers a novel perspective regarding the interface between law, mysticism, and social reality. The inner turn that characterizes Hasidism is often understood through a binary model defined by the Christian Hebraists, and followed by many academic scholars, in which law and spirit exist in...

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Bibliographic Details
Subtitles:Research Article
Authors: Kahana, Maoz (Author) ; Mayse, Ariel Evan 1986- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: University of Pennsylvania Press [2017]
In: AJS review
Year: 2017, Volume: 41, Issue: 2, Pages: 375-408
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Chassidismo / Halakhah / Diritto / Mistica / Realtà sociale / Scissione / Discorso
IxTheo Classification:BH Judaism
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Summary:This paper offers a novel perspective regarding the interface between law, mysticism, and social reality. The inner turn that characterizes Hasidism is often understood through a binary model defined by the Christian Hebraists, and followed by many academic scholars, in which law and spirit exist in intractable tension. We suggest, however, that in the specific contexts of Hasidism, nomos, eros, and mystical piety often merged in distinctive ways, and that these are visible in novel forms of Jewish legal method and discourse. Our appreciation of the multifaceted Jewish religious and pietistic expressions of modernity should not be made to conform to the generally accepted definition of an era of strict “Orthodox” formulation and monolithic, conservative legal stagnation. Instead, we argue that the spiritual and legal ethos of Hasidism took on new forms in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as local identities became increasingly complex and new cultural fusions led to creative re-expressions of law and theology.
ISSN:1475-4541
Contains:Enthalten in: Association for Jewish Studies, AJS review
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1017/S0364009417000423